Books in the Attic

Founded in 1988 by Dr. Yehuda Melzer and now managed by his son, Ilai Melzer, Books in the Attic has become one of Israel’s most respected independent publishers. Its catalogue spans philosophy, popular science, history, politics, society, and economics, alongside translated fiction from the finest world literature, children’s and young adult books, and original Hebrew literature.

Within a relatively short time, Books in the Attic established a central position in Israeli publishing and is today particularly renowned for its contribution to philosophy and popular science. Its list is organised into several distinguished series, including:

Philosophy – A collection of translated philosophical classics featuring Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Mill, H. L. A. Hart, Kuhn, Kant, Rawls, and others.

Philosophy and Science – A popular science series exploring philosophy, mathematics, biology, physics, economics, history, and more. Titles include The Great Philosophers, Fermat’s Last Theorem, Game Theory, The Music of the Primes, Fooled by Randomness, A History of Science, The God Delusion, The Age of Uncertainty, and Einstein.

Harry Potter – The complete seven-book series, together with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, two Hogwarts textbooks, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and the three Fantastic Beasts screenplays by J.K. Rowling. The list also includes The Christmas Pig and The Ickabog.

The Cormoran Strike Series – J.K. Rowling’s bestselling crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

The Night School Series by C. J. Daugherty – A successful seven-book young adult series set in the mysterious Cimmeria Academy.

Classics – Including Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, I, Claudius by Robert Graves, The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks, Jules and Jim by Henri-Pierre Roché, Papillon by Henri Charrière, and Sense of Humour and Other Stories by Damon Runyon.

The Erast Fandorin Series – The adventures of the Russian detective Erast Fandorin by Boris Akunin, one of Russia’s most widely read contemporary authors.

People – A biography series devoted to figures such as Einstein, Marx, Wittgenstein, Pushkin, Bobby Fischer, and Muhammad Ali.

Original Hebrew authors on the list include Rabbi Chaim Sabato, Assaf Gavron, Shaul Arieli, Prof. Aviad Kleinberg, Prof. David Harel, Prof. Hagai Netzer, and Prof. Oren Harman, among others.

The house has also introduced Hebrew readers to major international voices including Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Stefan Zweig, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Douglas Adams, Ernst Gombrich, Christopher Browning, Raymond Aron, Kostas Mourselas, Daniel Mendelsohn, Simon Singh, William Steig, Richard Dawkins, Steve Jones, Bryan Magee, Marcus du Sautoy, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and Terry Hayes.

Since its founding, Books in the Attic has collaborated with Yedioth Books, the publishing division of Yedioth Ahronoth, for distribution and marketing.